M. Schmeisser and P. Voss, Zeitschrift für Anorganische und Allgemeine Chemie, volume 334, 1994, pages 50 to 56 disclose that polymeric silicon dichloride [SiCl2]x can be at least partly degraded by a stream of chlorine, diluted with nitrogen in a volume ratio of 1:1, at a temperature of 60° C. As well as unreacted polymeric silicon dichloride, the subchlorides Si2Cl6 to Si5Cl12, in particular, could be isolated. However, only a part of the polymeric silicon dichloride was reacted. From 46.5 g of polymeric silicon dichloride as starting material, only 20 g of the subchlorides are obtained, which suggests that less than 50% of the starting material was reacted.
It could therefore be helpful to provide kinetically stable halogenated polysilane mixtures which exhibit increased stability toward, for example, degradation in oxidizing atmospheres.